Carding engine



A. VARGA CARDING ENGINE July 10, 1951 Filed Aug. 13, 1945 G if atented .iiiiy 10, 1951 CARDING ENGINE Andor Varga, now by change of name Andre Varga, Ilkley, England, assignor to Carding Specialists (Canada) Limited, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a Canadian company Application August 13, 1945, Serial No. 610,599 In Great Britain August 18, 1944 9 Claims. (Cl. 19-400) This invention relates to roller carding engines and particularly the driving means for the rollers.

Although roller carding engines have been used for a considerable number of years, they are still constructed and geared in such a manner that the means for modifying the intensity and character of their work are very limited in scope and not easily changed. It was soon found out by experience, trial and error, that the substitution of a bigger worker roller or some other modifications in the arrangement, number and size of one or the other organs of the engine made it specially suitable to work particular fibre blends. Lacking a comprehensive and all embracing theory regarding the principles upon which the function of each organ depends, special machines were constructed for each particular type of fibre according to experience gained. Even these specialised carding engines have to be adapted by the operator to the natural variations in the range of materials for which the carding set is built. The only means of adaptation for which even the more up-to-date carding engine used in practice provides facilities, are the setting of the gap between the roller surfaces, and a limited modiiication of the speeds of the worker and doifer rollers. The means for setting the rollers are rather crude due to it being almost impossible to measure accurately the gap between two adjacent wire-teeth clothed surfaces. As regards the change of roller speeds it has been proposed to provide an infinitely variable drive between swift and stripper rollers and swift and worker rollers, but as regards other elements, changing sprocket wheels or otherwise altering the ratio between roller elements in steps has been required, for which operation the machine must be stopped. Before obtaining approximately correct relative speeds for all the co-operating elements of a carding engine the laborious changing of sprocket wheels or the equivalent may have to be repeated several times. Observations of the disconnected results is thus rendered difiicult and consequently modification of speeds is rarely resorted to.

I have found that the general principle governing the character and intensity ofv the work done by a card, consists in the influence of the relative size of the angles formed between wires and fibres at and near the contact line of the co-acting rollers. These angles determine the force by which the fibre is held by any wire, and, also, are ultimately responsible for the friction between the loose fibre end and the wires. The intensity of the friction is thus a. function of the fibre characteristics and the relative inclination of the wires 2 v to each other on co-operating rollers which happen to act on a particular fibre. As the wires are fixed to the peripheries of rollers which are of different diameters their relative inclination to each other can be governed at any point by changing their relative speeds. By changing the relative speeds the friction between fibres and wires becomes correspondingly modified and in consequence the intensity of the carding action, and the time during which a particular fibre is being worked upon and the character of the action thereon of co-operating roller elements, is altered. In addition, the distribution of fibres on the roller surface isalso affected by speed variation whereby a particular or desired mixing of the blend and the most effective levelling of the resulting web may be attained.

The facilities at present provided in a carding engine do not allow for quick and accurate gap setting, particularly of the fancy, and adjustment of the relative speeds of slime elements, which materially affect the. efilciency of the carding engine. The object of the present invention is to remove the difficulties heretofore experienced in these directions.

According to the present invention, a carding engine comprising swift, worker and fancy roller elements is provided with driving means arranged so that the relative speeds of the elements are capable of infinite variation within given limits while the engine is running.

According to the invention, moreover, a carding engine provided with means for driving worker rollers and stripper rollers so as to be capable of infinite variation in speed in relation to the swift within given limits, is characterized by the provision of means, also infinitely variable within given limits while the carding engine is running, for driving a doffer roller and/or fancy.

The independent, flexible, quick and easy changing of the relative speed of the roller elements in question may be achieved by the provision of infinitely variable speed cone or other belt drives, infinitely variable change speed gears. infinitely variable speed'motor drives or the like. A reverse motion device for the worker rollers may be incorporated.

Referring to the drawing wherein one embodiment of the invention is shown- Figs. 1 and 2 are respectively side views from the right and left hand sides of the machine.

In a convenient construction, for driving the worker rollers, a belt (or chain) drive I is taken from the pulley I on swift shaft 3 to an intermediate pulley to reduce the speed, which drives 3 another pulley I through gear wheels 8. These gears may be equal in size or of different sizes. This latter pulley has a belt I passed from it to a variable cone pulley I which has an associated duplicate variable cone pulley 9 on the same shaft l linked by a belt ll to a pulley ii on a worker shaft IS. The variable pulleys 5, 9, are carried by a control mounting ll which allows the pulleys to be moved relative to the belts to change the speed in known manner. For reverse motion the. pulley 4 could be capable of movement to disengage the gears 6 when a third gear i5, carried by an arm l5, could be swung up about the pivot I! to mesh with the gears 5. All the workers are driven from one to the other by an endless chain II (or belt) passing over sprocket wheels in known manner. A chain or gear drive may be substituted for the belt drive I.

The doffer I9 is driven from the pulley by mechanism similar to that which transmits motion from the pulley 5 to the worker rollers, i. e. by a belt 20 similar to the belt 1, cone pulleys II and 22 on a shaft 23 similar to the cone pulleys l and 5 on the shaft l0, belt 24 similar to the belt ll, pulley 25 on the shaft 26 similar to the pulley I! on the shaft l3. and control means 21 similar to the control means H.

The fancy 25 is driven by the shaft 3, pulley 25, belt 30, pulley 3|, gear wheels 32, pulley 33, belt 34, variable cone pulleys 35 and 35 on the shaft 81, control means 38, belt 39 and pulley 40 on the shaft 4 l The stripper roller and similar rollers 42 are driven by the shaft 3, pulley 29, belt 43, pulley M, gear wheels 45, pulley l5, belt 41', variable cone pulleys 48 and 49 on the shaft 50, control means 5i, belt 52, pulley 53 and belt 5|.

For the fancy the variable speed drive may have combined therewith an arrangement that will allow the intermeshing of the fancy wires with those of the swift to be modified in the course of the working of the carding engine. The fancy serves the purpose of lifting the fibres from between the swift wires and achieves this by the special formation of its wires and its greater surface speed so that its wires sweep the wires of the swift with which they intermesh. The greater the gain of fancy wire speed over that of the swift surface speed, and the deeper the intermeshing the greater the effectiveness of the sweeping action. A small variation of the setting depth makes a great difference which in combination with the variable speed means enables the efliciency of the fancy to be varied to suit different fibres and the requirements of the slubbings being produced. This speed and intermeshing adjustment enables maximum clearance of the swift to be carried out by the doifer without the fancy causing excessive fly." Adjustment of the fancy may be carried out as shown by mounting its shaft ll in slidable end bearings 55 (adjustable stops 56 limit their forward movement) each controlled by a differential screw 51 with a cross shaft 58 geared to both screws 5'! for one hand wheel 59 to control both bearings. The dinerential screws have two sets of threads with one set of a finer pitch than the other and working respectively in a screw threaded hole in the fixing bracket ill and bearing 55. This screw arrangement enables a very fine adjustment of the fancy to be achieved even with a full rotation of the hand wheel. The differential screws give extremely fine adjustments but other devices could be used such as a pair of eccentrics on a cross shaft each working in a strap anchoredto a bearing. 4

Speed variation of I the various elements of a carding engine controls the action thereof in various ways. Thus, speed variation of the swifl controls the intensity of combing, speed variation of the worker controls the duration of combing and the fibre splitting co-eiiicient of the worker. speed variation of the stripper controls the repeated treatment of the same look or fibre agglomeration, speed variation of the doffer controls the quantity of fibres left on the swift, while speed variation of the fancy controls the extent of lift imparted to the back end of the fibres to cause them to rise above the surface of the swift and, in consequence, the fibre splitting co-efllcient of the doifer.

What I claim is:

1. A carding engine for wool and similar fibers comprising swift, stripper, worker, doifer and fancy roller elements and driving means for said elements arranged so that the speeds of the swift, worker and fancy roller elements relative to each other are capable of infinite variation within limits while the engine is running.

2. A carding engine for wool and similar fibers comprising swift, stripper, worker and fancy roller elements and driving means therefor arranged so that the relative speeds of the swift, stripper, worker and fancy roller elements to each other are capable of infinite variation within limits while the engine is running.

3. A carding engine for W001 and similar fibers comprising swift, stripper, worker, fancy and doifer roller elements and driving means therefor arranged so that the relative speeds of each of said roller elements to each other roller element is capable of infinite variation within limits while the engine is running.

4. A carding engine for wool and similar fibers comprising a swift and co-operating worker, stripper, doffer and fancy roller elements, a drive transmission between the swift and worker ele ments. and a second drive transmission between the swift and fancy roller element, said drive transmissions each being capable of infinite variation within limits while the carding engine is running.

5. A carding engine for wool and similar fibers comprising a swift and co-operating stripper, worker, doifer and fancy roller elements, and separate drive transmissions for said stripper, worker and fancy roller elements, each of said drive transmissions being capable of infinite variation within limits while the carding engine is running.

6. A carding engine for wool and similar fibers comprising a swift and co-operating stripper, worker, fancy and doifer roller elements, and separate drive transmissions for each of said stripper, worker, fancy and doifer roller elements,

each of said drive transmissions being capable of infinite variation within limits while the carding engine is running. v

7. A carding engine for W001 and similar fibers comprising a swift and co-operating worker, stripper, fancy and doifer roller elements and separate infinitely variable drive transmissions for at least the worker and fancy roller elements, said drive transmissions being capable of infinite variation within limits while the carding engine is running.

8. A carding engine for- W001 and similar fibers comprising a swift and co-pperating worker, stripper, fancy and doifer roller elements, separate infinitely variable drive transmissions for at least the worker and fancy roller elements whereby the speeds thereof in relation to the other roller element may be infinitely varied within limits without stopping the carding engine, and means for adjustably mounting both ends of the shaft of the fancy roller element whereby both ends thereof may be adjusted simultaneously to vary the depth of intermeshing of its wires with those of the swift roller element while the engine is running.

9. A carding engine for wool and similar fibers comprising a swift and co-operating worker, stripper, fancy and doffer roller elements, a drive transmission from said swift roller element to each of said co-operating elements, each drive transmission incorporating means for infinite variation of speed of the respective element in relation to the swift roller element within limits during the running of the engine, and means for setting the said fancy roller element to or away from the said swift roller element while the engine is running.

ANDOR VARGA.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

